MUSEUM AR EXPERIENCE
CONTEXT: Student project in 7th semester
GENRE: Augmented Reality
ENGINE: Meta Spark Studio
TOOLS: Blender, Photoshop
TIME FRAME: 3 weeks
TEAM SIZE: solo project
PLATFORM: Android & IOS
THE DESIGN PROCESS:
This project was my last one during my studies. I came up with the idea while searching for a suitable bachelor topic. The thought of this project didn't let me go. That’s why I finally decided to realize the concept within the module ‘Research and Technology’ in the 7th semester. But what is this actually about?
At the beginning I chose a landscape painting by Picasso to convert it into 3D. Afterwards, it should be possible to enter the painting in ‘Augmented Reality’. I modeled every object in the painting and transferred the textures. But I had to redraw many of the textures in Photoshop because the objects are now in 3D and it’s possible to have a look at them from any perspective.
I had some difficulties with the implementation in AR. At first I wanted to work in the Unreal Engine, but the perspective freedoms made it complicated. The buildings in the back are modeled in a very small size to avoid any impact on the original painting. If you're not too close, you won’t notice this problem.
But the main point of the project is to explore the painting and therefore the landscape has to feel real with houses in real sizes. I think it would have been possible to solve this problem with programming skills. Since it was a 1-man project, I decided to use a different presentation method. With the program 'Meta Spark' I made it possible to use my own cell phone camera to scan the painting of Picasso, whereupon the camera recognizes the painting and replaces it with my 3D model. Finally it’s possible to explore the landscape in all its artistic beauty. The project was limited to only 3 weeks. In the coming years, I would like to expand this concept and cooperate with museums. This kind of digital art presentation would be an idea to bring the museum trips closer to the youth.
Move your cursor across the painting to see a first version of the project and get an impression.
A speedrun through the buildings
A prototype of the AR image tracker on a mobile device
© 2022 Youssef Jammoul
